R & W Boat Rentals, Inc. v. Pennsylvania Ins. Co.

• Citation: 257 So.2d 448
• Decision Date: 31 January 1972
• Docket Number: No. 8692,8692
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana (US)
• Parties: R & W BOAT RENTALS, INC. v. The PENNSYLVANIA INSURANCE CO. et al.

Page 448

257 So.2d 448

1972 A.M.C. 1783

R & W BOAT RENTALS, INC. v. The PENNSYLVANIA INSURANCE CO. et al.

No. 8692.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

Jan. 31, 1972.

Wilson C. Krebs, Patterson, for appellant.

Cornelius G. Van Dalen and Christopher Tompkins, of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles, New Orleans, for Penn. Ins. Co., and Gulf Coast Marine, Inc.

Wollen J. Falgout, Thibodaux, for R. & W. Boat Rentals, Inc.

Before LOTTINGER, SARTAIN and ELLIS, JJ.

LOTTINGER, Judge.

This is an appeal from the granting of a motion for a summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee, the Pennsylvania Insurance Company. This case arises out of the sinking of a small vessel and a claim against the insurance company. At the time of the sinking, there was in force a hull policy of insurance covering the plaintiff's small vessel or 'Jo Boat', the E. J. Stanley, against the risk of certain losses, including stranding and sinking. The insurance policy included the following as regards to 'Navigation Limits,' to-wit:

'Warranted by the insured confined to the use and navigation of the inland waters of Louisiana including the Lakes, Bays, and Sounds of this State but excluding any open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.'

A further provision in the policy provided:

'Any deviation beyond the navigation limits provided herein shall void this policy * * *.'

The defendant-appellee contends that the vessel in question was approximately ten miles out in the open Gulf when it sank. To its motion for a summary judgment, the defendant-appellee attached an affidavit of Euwell Paul Vincent, Captain of the E. J. Stanley. Also produced into evidence was a U.S . Coast and Geodetic Chart No. 1116 of the Gulf of Mexico, from the Mississippi River to Galveston. From the affidavit of Vincent and the deposition of Vincent, as well as the illustrations marked on the chart, there is no question but that the vessel was in open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The E. J. Stanley entered the Gulf of Mexico through the locks and channel of Fresh Water Bayou, and then proceeded westward to a point some ten miles off the coast of Louisiana. During the work being performed in this area, the weather worsened, and the seas became heavy, causing the skipper of the E. J. Stanley to abandon his vessel and board a self-propelled barge which took the Stanley in tow in an effort to bring her back to the sheltered waters of Fresh Water Bayou. The Stanley sank while in tow approximately ten miles off the coast of Louisiana.

The plaintiff-appellant contends that the motion for summary judgment should not have been granted for the reason that there was a question of material fact, and 'any confusion in the language of an...